Everyone wants to know how motivation works and how they can make it work for them, however no-one has hours to do research about it. Well I’m glad you’re here! I have summarised a few hours of my own research into a article you can read in less than 10 minutes!

Science behind Motivation

Because motivation has such a wide definition, I have split it into 2 categories where I will talk about the brain in both scientific way as well as psychological because in my opinion it’s important to know how both aspects work to get a full grasp.

Neurological

Our brain loves rewards! More specifically the ventral striatum, orbitofrontal cortex, and the mesolimbic dopamine system.

The basic premise of this is that we try to do something, we get rewarded our brain releases dopamine. This cycle repeats very commonly with small tasks like cleaning the house, that feeling when it’s done is the effect of motivation or that dopamine. Dopamine, or more commonly known as the “happy hormone”,

Psychological

Psychology is one of those sciences that is looked down on because it’s a social science until it explains something so perfectly, like motivation!

The first theory for motivation is “The Arousal Theory”. This states a very simple idea, that humans are motivated to retain a stable and optimal level of arousal through optimising anxiety. I go into why anxiety plays a big part in my “The fastest way to Fall Behind; Accept Comfort”

You can read it here!

https://crash-course.online/the-fastest-way-to-fall-behind-accept-comfort/

Effects of Motivation

Motivation is very important at our well-being, performance as well as behaviour.

Firstly our well-being is affected due to our self-worth, life satisfaction and sense of purpose are all elevated to levels that increase the odds of us committing with a diet, project or even a person! Best way to prove this is by asking a simple question. Have you ever felt sluggish because you had nothing to do for an entire day, week or even a month? That’s the lack of motivation causing bad habits and preventing you from caring after yourself.

Secondly, our performance. This is one of the more obvious ones. It’s common to feel demotivated at work, with studies showing only 15% of the workforce tend to be motivated. However, those 15% are 20% more efficient and productive in their role. Think back to a night where you had a burst of energy due to an idea forming and you spent a while working on that idea as minutes turned to hours. That’s the effect!

Lastly, behaviour. How you act when you are motivated strongly depend on who you are! We all have that one friend (it’s me) where the second they’re motivated about an idea or a project they can not stop talking about it. It might be annoying to outsiders looking in, but that person is feeling so motivated they could literally burst!

Building Motivation

Unfortunately, this is where simplicity ends for knowing and learning about motivation. Building motivation can prove difficult to some people while easier to others. Here are some things you can put into action right now to make yourself more motivated!

SMART Goals

Write down a bunch of goals that fit the SMART criteria. What’s the SMART criteria? I’m glad you asked! It stands for;

Specific - Put specifics in the goal, so instead of “Get Fit” it could be “Put on 5KG of lean mass”

Measurable - Try to make it number based or something that you could put a progress bar to. Changing “Lose Weight” to “Lose 10KG” is better as you will be able to see how far you are.

Achievable - Make the goal realistic, otherwise you will be demotivated very quickly. Instead of writing a bizarre goal of “Lose 20KG this month” make sure you do research about what’s possible.

Relevant - Align the goals with your values and direction in life. Don’t put a goal like “Gain 10KG of muscle” when you aren’t really into fitness and don’t care for it.

Time-Bound - Set deadlines! This is so underappreciated! As the saying goes “Pressure Makes Diamonds”, with no deadline you will find yourself in a loop of knowing you have enough time and don’t need to try harder than you currently are.

Rewards

I saw on Social Media, this creator was trying to lose weight and rewarded herself per 5KG she lost. This meant she was constantly getting reward for her efforts and positively reinforced herself to working out.

Obviously you can alter this to whatever goals you have, for me right now I have a goal of reaching 1,000 subscribed readers on my blog. This is a very ambitious goal but down the line I will reward myself with some treats and Knick knacks.

Start Small

Do not make a goal list a bucket list!

Making a bucket list is great, but your goal list should include stuff that you can achieve in a few years maximum, try to aim for weeks or months. Making sure you do a small step frequently is always better than rarely doing a large one. Another frequent saying is to make sure you’re improving 1% every day. This sounds pathetically small in retrospect but if you realise that 1% everyday for a year is about 3700%. That is 37 times better! Compare that to getting better 100% month is only 4096%

TL;DR

Motivation is something we all need and want. Getting it is difficult but should be a priority in everyone’s life’s.

Yours Truly,

Szymon